Monday, August 11, 2008

My Mystery Friend

The DH took me there on Saturday to meet his Goodwill-hunting friend. She has been my mystery friend for several months now. She and I found out (through my DH) that we have a mutual friend, Nancy at China Phoenix II, and her friend Annie Onderdonk is someone whose art I've admired lasciviously for. . . ever. (Wow, I just spell-checked that and I did spell lasciviously right!)

So anyway, one day DH was Goodwill-hunting (my word for his estate sale, yard sale, thrift store obsession and apparently he's not alone because he actually has friends on that circuit...), and my mystery friend's friend Annie was with her on the circuit, and somehow the subject of ME came up, and Annie remembered me because we were in a class together at OFFCenter (Keith LoBue's class, in fact), and also I queried a magazine once to do an interview of her. Well anyway, I received a big strangulation hug from him on her behalf.

Since then, my lovely mystery friend has sent home odds and ends of super lucsious (another difficult L word) found goodies for me -- most recently a lovely batch of vintage buttons she handpicked for me and tossed into his basket.

Saturday, I imagine it was sort of like meeting someone you know from an online dating service, except we obviously aren't dating and had never even corresponded... but MAN, I saw her booth and started drooling, and then when I saw HER, I realized I'd seen her before (I never forget a face, it's an affliction).

A few years ago, the DH took me on his Goodwill-hunting rounds, and we walked into the Goodwill distribution center a bit late in the day. Out walks this woman, I recognized her instantly as an artist though I'd never seen her before (it's an affinity...I went to Catholic schools so I can recognize nuns too, by the way). She was wandering out the door with a huge roll of beaded ball chain, the industrial kind. It was the one and only time I went there with him.

How utterly odd that she would be the one who became his friend...and my mystery friend. Well, ta-da, her name is Cheryl Thorpe and she teaches soldering classes at China Phoenix II. And, she is as lovely as her work is. Not surprising. Here's what I bought from her, along with a big packet of ephemera to play with:

This little house ornament and the woman in it will grace my bulletin board at work.